Volunteer work with Chabad Lubavitch will be recognized as a legitimate alternative to IDF service under the Tal Law, which allows young haredi men to contribute to the state without doing army duty.

Encouraging fellow Jews to wear tefillin or to light Shabbat candles will not be recognized asnational service, but aiding the sick and poor and helping young boys prepare for their bar mitzvas will be.

"It is scandalous that an organization which preaches religious adherence is receiving recognition and funding from the state to be an alternative to IDF service," said Kariv.

"I have nothing against Chabad per se. But the state has no right to substitute blatantly religious activity for mandatory military service. There must be clear criteria for national servicethat is devoid of religious content.

"The haredim have been given enough shortcuts with the Tal Law. This is going too far. We will fight it in court."

A dispute between Sephardi and Ashkenazi rabbis over theappointmentof Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's son has prevented the two camps from joining forces totake controlof the Chief Rabbinate's governing council.

Next Tuesday, avotingbody of 150 rabbis and public servants will convene to vote for the Chief Rabbinate's governing council (Moetzet Harabanut Harashit), the final authority on issues such as criteria for kosher supervision, deciding who is a Jew for the purpose of marriage and the appointmentof new rabbis and marriage registrars.

The Israel Religious Action Center is currently petitioning the Supreme Court to force the national bus company, Egged, and the transport ministry to end their official co-operation with the practice on 30 routes.

Many additional routes are informally segregated, enforced by ultra-Orthodox passengers.

“We do not, in principle, dispute the right of the Haredim to demand segregated buses inside their own communities,” [Einat Hurvitz] said.

“But our petition is designed to stop Egged and the transport ministry from using public funds to enforce segregation on services open to the general public.”

Ministry officials have washed their hands of the issue, saying the mehadrin lines are the outcome of agreements between Egged and the Haredim.

However, the court has ordered a response to the petition from both Egged and the transport ministry by the end of this month.

Ms Hurvitz said a growing number of bus routes between major towns have become segregated in the past few years following demands from ultra-Orthodox passengers, although none is marked as segregated.

“Egged has caved in because it knows that the Haredim feel strongly enough that they will stop using the services and set up their own unlicensed bus lines.

It also knows that in most cases the non-Haredi public has no choice but to carry on using the lines, even when they are segregated.”

Ynet recently received a document describing the ordeal of a woman whose husband refused to grant her a divorce for five years.

The husband declared he would never give his wife a divorce, the judges in Israel's religious courts were indifferent, and then the man fled to Britain with the help of his family, leaving her to take care of their disabled daughter.

The woman thought she would remain abandoned forever, until Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lichtenstein of London entered the picture.

So can the solution for abandoned women inIsrael only come from rabbis abroad? Here is something for Israel's religious judges to think about.

It doesn't happen all that often, but I recently received a phone call that filled me with hope and optimism.

My friend Sara, who had been anagunah for over six years, whose story is saturated with some of the most painful and trying aspects of human manipulation and abuse, called to tell me she has remarried and has a baby.

I must admit, there were times when I never thought she would reach this point.

Leading Orthodox feminist scholar and activist Prof. Naomi Cohen of Haifa is this year's honoree at the annual Leah Globe (z"l) dinner ofMavoi Satum, the organization providing legal, rabbinic and social services to agunot.

What changes would you like to see in the future?

Religiously, I would like to see a change from the conceptualization of women as a “purchase” (kinyan) of the man.

This is the starting point for dealing with the halakhic root of the problem of agunot, both in the classic and the modern sense.

With Rosh Hashanah only a number of weeks away, one can only lament the realities surrounding the situation in Ramot A regarding a Dati Leumi school being used to provide a [temporary] solution for the Beis Yaakov system.

The battle being waged over a Ramot A school building will without a doubt leave bad memories for all concerned as parents battle it out on the streets, City Hall, and in court, compelling the students to ‘take side’ against one another.

Students in Israel'seducation systemare unaware of the importance of a Jewish state and do not know why the fight for its very existence is still going on, according toHebrew University of Jerusalemlaw professor and former Winograd Committee member Ruth Gavison.

"In a state like Israel, educational policy should reflect the national, religious and cultural plurality, but also the joint objectives of the entire state," Gavison said in her speech.

"In practice, Israel gives predominance to a multitude of minority groups, and fails to sufficiently stress the joint civil core, and the education for a rich identity of the Jewish-Zionist enterprise's key group - the Zionist group which does not observe mitzvot.

"They are leading the public astray and are causing a great negative influence on the young generation," says Rabbi Efraim Luft, head of an ultra-orthodox organisation in Israel called the Committee for Jewish Music.

Supported by leading Haredi rabbis, Rabbi Luft has drawn up a black-list of musicians and bands - music that he says that is not kosher and cannot be played at ultra-orthodox weddings or public events because of its decadent nature.

Because of the loyal relationship between [ultra] orthodox Jews and their rabbis, the influence of bodies like the Committee for Jewish Music and the Guardians of Sanctity and Education is considerable.

"This is going to be a very,very special night," Shlomo told his rapt audience, "because tonight,for the first time in Caesarea, we have separate seating.

"Over here," he said, pointing to the left section "is only for men. The middle section will be mixed, and over on the right is the women's section.

…What he's attempting is no less than the reconciliation of religious and non-religious Jews around the world.

Gad Elbaz is on a mission from God, and he wants Jews to come together - over him.

"The fact there'sreligiousand non-religious musicians and crew, and the fact that he pulled singers that are notreligiousbut havereligious souls together for one show I think is a major accomplishment by itself," he says, motioning toward the mix of people onstage.

"Tonight we have over 150 people working together to put on this religiousshow. Shlomo Gronich came to me and said, 'You've already done what you wanted to do.'"

In the past the legacy was passed from mother to daughter and there was no need to explicate and clarify this matter, which was clearly understood, but in our times this situation has changed and now many outside influences have penetrated, even into the best homes, unfortunately…”

Two yeshiva students who were discharged from service in the hesder program (combining advanced Talmudic studies with military service in the IDF), turned to the army, religious Knesset members and brochure editorial boards, with a request to allow them to disperse brochures to various military synagogues.

“As you know, the Ma’ariv, Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz newspapers are distributed free of charge to soldiers on various IDF bases,” they wrote in their plea.

“As people who served and are serving in the IDF, who read the distributed newspapers for lack of any other choice, we personally feel the great need to introduce diverse media into the IDF.”

…Naomi Chazan, a former parliamentarian who was instrumental in amending the 2000 service law, says women are still not being integrated into all combat roles they want due to "inbuilt chauvinism" in the army and pressure from national religious groups.

Stephen Donshik, formerly director of the Israel Office of UJA-Federation of New York, has worked in Israel for 25 years in the area of Israel-Diaspora relations and international philanthropy. He now teaches and has a private consultation firm.

The Jewish Agency for Israel should be reengineered to be a “Foundation for the Jewish People” rather than a functional agency.

The emphasis would be on raising funds for the purpose of planning and providing the funding for programs to assist the Jewish people around the world.

The JewishAgency may have "outsourced" the important function of bringing aliya from the world's largest Jewish community, but it remains for the foreseeable future the only body connecting the diverse communities ofthe Jewishworld together, according to agency director-general Moshe Vigdor.

Dr. Alex Sinclair, who made aliyah in 1998, is a lecturer in Jewish Education at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, as well as an adjunct assistant professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Aliyah is a fine and wonderful thing to encourage. I've even done it myself.

Nefesh B'Nefesh should go from strength to strength. But the Jewish Agency's job must be to advocate for and initiate 21st century Israel education and engagement.

It is possible to create commitment to Israel through complexity and conversation. Let us stop negating the Diaspora and start talking with it.

The Jewish Agency's agreement to allow Nefesh B'Nefesh to become the primary promoter ofNorth Americanaliya to Israel shows that the Agencywas "unable to handle" immigration from the US, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit said Monday.

Jewish culture is thriving, tefillin stands are multiplying, but strengthening Judaism and the connection to our roots is mostly made possible in the academia, Major-General (Res.) Yaakov Amidror believes.

In a speech delivered last week he ruled that "those who think infiltrating Jewish values into the State's identity will be made through culture, or through street stands, is wrong. This influence will be sparse.

The main way to influence the character and identity of the State will be through the academia and research."

This year, a new organization is combining the loan amnesty precept with charity.

The Israeli Fund for Loan Amnesty - Nedivei Eretz, established by the Torah & Land Institute and the Paamonim charitable association, has invited the public to observe the amnesty by depositing money with the fund as a loan that will be forgiven on the last day of the shmita year, which this year falls on September 29.

On that day, the loan will become a donation that will be given to needy families, religious and secular, to help them pay their debts.

The religious-owned "Almost for Free Warehouses" chain has bought up three non-Kosher "Tiv Taam" food stores, in order to put a stop to the sale of the non-Kosher meat and other products sold there.

Brothers Ronnie and Adi Tzim, owners of the Kim'at Chinam (Practically Free) chain, say they have no economic interest in buying the stores.

They explain that their only goal is to rid the country of the sale of pig meat and other non-Kosher items Tiv Taam is noted for selling.

Sources at the chain say the brothers continue seeking out other non-Kosher stores that they can acquire and make Kosher.

The newly-purchased stores are in Modiin, Nazareth Illit, and Haifa. The changes at the Modiin store have already begun, with the Mashgichim of the Kashrus L'Mehadrin organization supervising the process. T

he stores in Haifa and Nazareth Illit will undergo the same process in the coming weeks.

The haredi population of Tiberias was surprised to see aShas banner – endorsing local faction leader and Acting Mayor Eli Zigdon in the upcoming municipal elections - hanging over a non-kosher deli earlier this week.

Inquiries conducted in past years reveal that many of the suppliers of chickens for Kaporosdo not adhere to the veterinary requirements for transporting and caging poultry birds destined for shechitohand many are taken from one location to another, deliberately deceiving the public.

InteriorMinistry representatives will continue checking the eligibility for aliya of some 3,000 Ethiopian Falash Mura, who claim that under a 2003 government directive they should be allowed to immigrate to Israel,the governmentannounced Sunday.

The government's most recent decision will see the arrival in Israel each month of 100 families, a fall from the previous quota of 300.

And when they arrive, they will discover a new "Pilgrim's Route" leading from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea.

Along the way, they will be able to visit the site where the New Testament story of the Good Samaritan took place; the Qumran caves; and the site where, according to the New Testament, John the Baptist baptized Jesus.